We met at the newly opened restaurant Musigny, in Zurich Seefeld and tasted all 16 vintages from 2001 to 2016. I retained four highlights and conclusions:
- Consistency: the reputation as „best“ Swiss wine seems deserved. Quality across the years is on very good levels.
- Style shift? It seems that the winery younger vintages tend to have more toast and roast aromas and are crafted in a more modern, denser and richer style. Older vintages seemed more classic and cool. To me this felt more like a slight shift in style than just youth vs mature wines.
- The best vintages were 2010 (average score 5 tasters: 95.2), 2004 (94.8), 2013 & 2005 (94.0). Only 2002 was oxidized with the 2008 (89.3), 2003 (90.6) and 2011 (91.0) being at the lower end of the scale.
- The 2013 lives up to its reputation as „vintage of the century“ with an off-the charts complexity level – but it needs time. Other vintages currently offer better drinking pleasure. Overall it was a great experience trying to capture the essence of this Swiss cult winery.
Tasting Notes
Flight 1
2001 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 93 Points
Very soft texture, very balanced with sweet red fruit, herbs, stems, cola and lots of spices. The aromatic profile was good but the wine has no longer enough structure and power to fetch a higher rating. Nevertheless, a good wine.
2002 Gantenbein Pinot Noir, Flawed
Sadly this bottle had strong oxidative notes. A Gantenbein expert at the table said that this is a bottle issue, not a vintage or winery issue.
2003 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 90 Points
Quite opulent and ripe although. Lots of ripe, candied fruit, licorice, some smoke. Not the most complex and elegant wine. I kept lowering my score the longer I followed the wine.
2004 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 95 Points
This was the clearest, coolest, most classical Pinot in the lineup. Basically the opposite of the 2003. A very good focus, a good freshness and wonderful harmony with cool red fruit, various herbs, earth, subtle wood, some pepper. One of my favorites of the night and just a touch below the winners of the night (2010, 2013, 2014, 2015) as I found it a tad less complex. I somehow got the feeling that the 2016 might become the new 2004 in 10 years time. It showed an equally exciting purity.
Flight 2
2005 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 93 Points
Good freshness, good harmony, beautifully matured with nice tertiary aromatics with tobacco, leather and earth aromas along with sweet strawberries. Good length. I was not as fond of this wine as others at the table as it faded to some extent after 10+ minutes in the glass. Not sure how much life is left here. First few minutes were a 95 point experience, the last sip was rather at 90 points.
2006 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 94 Points
A bit younger than the older vintages before with some noticable but fine grained tannins, a well-integrated good acidity, dark fruit, smoke, earth and ash notes. Quite opulent and big. But with more time in the glass it got rounder and brighter with sweet red fruits, herbal scents, licorice and cola scents complementing the bouquet. This one definitely needs a decant – at first it was rather a 90 point experience.
2007 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 91 Points
The 2007 has not the elegance and lightfootness of other vintages but a very intriguing minerality and earthiness with a stems, leafs, rocky earth, ash driven nose and palate. For me missing is the sweetness, the fruit to balance all that minerality and earthiness.
2008 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 89 Points
Needed long in the glass to reveal something, at first shy and rather muted. With a bit more time it revealed candied darker red fruit, cola, some minty notes, baking spices. The ripeness here was on an elevated level no other vintage in this vertical reached. Not my favorite style and the weakest wine in the lineup.
The stylish restaurant Musigny in Seefeld was a perfect setting for this event
Flight 3
2009 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 93 Points
Very nice sweet fruits, sexy, some smoke and the first vintage I got the typical toasty oak notes that are so signature in younger Gantenbein Pinots. Soft texture, round, balanced. Not the most complex wine but a drinks very well.
2010 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 95 Points
What sets this apart from the other wines and made this the group‘s WOTN is certainly its complexity and completeness. Expressive nose with first, secondary and tertiary aromatics: dark and red fruit, stems, cola, slight barnyard, some herbal and vegetal notes. On the palate all these flavors are accompained with more minerality. Quite complete showing.
2011 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 92 Points
At first rather shy, not as dense and rich as the 2010 and the younger wines that followed later. With time more candied fruit popped-up, along with some toasty oak, cola, some stems, earth aromas. The weakest among thr more recent vintages, but not bad at all.
2012 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 94 Points
Intense roast aromas, dark fruit, forest floor, stems, lots of red fruit. That‘s one of those Gantenbein Pinot‘s that made me fall in love with this wine. All signature treats are there.
Flight 4
2013 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 93 Points
I was really much looking forward to revisit this wine after two years. Due to early frost only a third of the normal production with a perfect growing season afterwards. Several new high scores for a Swiss wine followed by the local critics. And whoosh, there‘s your cult wine, a Swiss legend (in the making). My first two encounters three and two years ago were not overly exciting with rather muted showings (no CT notes). This bottle today, however, got me really excited. It became instantly clear, that this wine is indeed special. No other vintage had as many different layers of aromas, no other vintages had remotely as much complexity as this one. But it became obvious that the wine is not yet ready, you got just hints of this and hints of that, the structure has to mellow and better integrate too. Very promising, though. If you pop a bottle today give it a long 5h+ decant.
2014 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 94 Points
I‘ve had this wine many times over the past three years and it always showed all the signature stingy toast, coffee, oak aromas along with sweet dark and red fruit and so did this bottle. A bit toned down vs other bottles I‘ve had recently as the wine is shutting down (to be on the safe side I would give it at least 2h in the decanter). But with a bit of swirling and waiting it opened up more, almost reaching the heights prior bottles showed.
2015 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 94 Points
Third encounter with this vintage and wine and compared to the other bottles this seemed rather slightly on the lighter side. The wine seems to be shutting down. But given the more enthusiastic reviews of the fellow tasters and my previous experiences I suppose my palate was just tired at that late point in the tasting.
2016 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 94 Points
Second encounter, still very young, fruit forward with excellent length. More signature roasted oak aromas than a year ago, more earthiness and stems hints than a year ago but still very primary. Indeed very promising.
Encore wine
2013 Donatsch Pinot Noir Unique 94 Points
We tasted this alongside the Gantenbein Pinot Noirt 2013 as part of a 16 vintage vertical. This wine got very high accolades from local critics as well as international publications (voted top 10 Pinot from outside Burgundy in expansive Decanter Magazine tasting story, Parker recently upgraded it to 95 points). Donatsch has a distinctive different style than Gantenbein, less intrusive, less “made”, more classic, soft, feminine, more Musigny. Lots of layers of soft fruit, minerality, lots of depth and good length. While this 2013 didn‘t reach the heights it did when younger, it is still very promising. If you open a bottle today, give it a long decant. Better just wait a few years.
Conclusion
Great place, great food, great wine, great people, great evening.
Author: Andy Schnyder
February 2019
